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Quoting paul sutton <zen14920@xxxxxxxxx>:
I think aiming these systems at perhaps linux user groups, would be better,or even students, going to uni (however even then they may need both Windows and Linux). He also said it was difficult to sell blank systems because of piracy, etc.
It isn't illegal to sell 'blank' systems. This is just a Microsoft thing, they want every PC to be sold with a licence, I think Dell got round this by installing MS-DOS on their servers or something. At the end of the day, once the user has bought a PC they can do what they like with it. I know some people who have bought PCs with Windows 98 or ME on it and they don't have any concerns about borrowing and installing a pirate copy of Windows XP Pro corporate on their PCs, so if the PC has an OS or not, it still happens.
I think there is a lot of good reports on Linux and it's made out to be a great alternative to windows and will do everything (perhaps over hyped), what people fail to mention is the extra work that goes into getting it too work, (e.g dvd drivers, nvidia, drivers etc), not much for us, but for some will not be good enough.
As mentioned before, if he's going to sell a PC, it should work out of the box. I have my own PC building/repair business albeit I've not been putting much time into it (been contracting instead for a while) but whenever I sell a PC, or re-build a PC for someone, I make sure EVERYTHING works before handing it over to the customer, even if it does mean an extra hour or two to test the machine. If he is worried about compatibility, he could look at some of the white box manufacturers which advertise in CTO magazine. Two I can think of are Pixel Electronics (who also sell systems with Linux pre-installed) and A- Sure technology (who was started by the ex management of Tiny Computers, although don't let this put you off).
so again? Is Linux ready as a 100% replacement for windows for new home users (truthfully), but also as a system that people can do everything and anything they want. So I can buy any game for windows and run it on linux which as I said earlier people will expect.
How many games run well on a Windows PC anyway? Take Doom 3 for instance, I tried it on my PC (Athlon 64 3000+, 1GB Ram, ATI Radion 9200), it runs but not overly great. How many normal users would be prepared to fork out £300 on a graphics card alone when you can get a games console for £100? IHO, an average user usually buys a PC from the likes of PC World or Time computers, they are fairly decent spec for most things but usually have either a low spec graphics card, or even worse - on board video with shared memory, so even in Windows, games aren't going to be that good.
Anyone got any suggestions. He is going to drop off a computer saturday (possibly) so I can install Linux on that, (however I am very bad at selling Linux advantages), which is going to cause problems as when he says "windows is easier) I have no answer, same goes for him saying that his MS boxes are correctly set up and he has no problems with viruses etc, (he has MSCE or whatever it is), etc, from my experience Linux is more stable than Windows, (even though Linux apps crash), but he has got MS systems that never crash),
Does he know anything about Linux? I'm thinking if he doesn't, maybe he's better off getting to know it himself before trying to sell PCs with it installed? Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.